One change that is occurring in western civilization has to do with the development of technology. As a result of some of these developments, we have gone from multitudes of relatively isolated communities and individuals to a more cohesive, global community. Two examples of this progression are transportation and information innovations such as air travel and the internet. Because of these innovations we have gained relatively easy access to people and communities in other cultures from which we would have been otherwise isolated.

Okonkwo’s tribe is Isolated in the sense that it is not aware of Christianity or the white man. Its inhabitant

Western civilization over time accepted the changes in technology because it was a change for the better. Technology posed a way out of a less desirable place and it is human nature to take the opportunity to better our situation. Traveling becomes much more reasonable by car than horse and buggy. We have eliminated weeks of time it takes to sail a boat across the Atlantic by using airplanes. We no longer have to wait a week to receive news, or mail. The internet has allowed the world to be interconnected at all times. We are now a globalized nation that can share information, pictures, and even transfer money over seas in seconds.

Most of the members of the tribe embraced Christianity because of the improvement it offered them. Being a part of a primitive spirituality that offered no personal salvation left room for improvement. The change that the Christians offered was one of personal salvation, a philosophy of a better life, a better place after life, and a congregation where people could meet, and be accepted as equals. A change the tribe was ready for. Each person could have control over his/her own destiny. They could independently read the bible, study this philosophy on life, and become ultimately better people. Christianity brought equality and a sense of unity and order to the tribe, a feeling of belonging to something collective.

It is human nature to improve if not change things in the world to better insure survival and comfort in their surroundings. When someone discovers a better more efficient way of doing something, for example, planting seeds, it would be in the best interest of others to adopt that technique. Achebe creates a primitive tribe that, in effect, is experiencing an evolutionary change, a society that is merging into new views in the world.

Some topics in this essay:
Atlantic Ocean, Vs Technology, western civilization, technology people, personal salvation, christian missionaries, offered personal salvation, horse buggy, information technology, boat atlantic, philosophy life, human nature, life ultimately,